1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to electrical circuits, and in particular, to transformers and related powered systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Power conditioning circuits have evolved over the years from linear regulators to low frequency pulse-width modulated systems and then to high frequency square wave converters. More recently, resonant converters have been adopted in order to achieve improved performance in a more compact, lightweight and inexpensive package.
A resonant converter is a power conditioning system that employs a resonant L-C circuit in performing power conversion. In general, a resonant converter controls the operation of one or more switches to apply a square wave of voltage (or current) to the resonant circuit. Energy within the resonant circuit is then transferred to a load coupled to the converter output.
As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, numerous topologies of resonant converters are possible, including boost mode, buck mode and buck-boost (flyback) and boost-buck. Many common resonant converter topologies employ one or more transformers to achieve design objectives, such as impedance matching, isolation between the input and output, reduction of electromagnetic interference (EMI), etc. The present disclosure describes a transformer design that may be employed, without limitation, as a transformer in a resonant converter.